I got back home late last night brimming with wonderful memories of our Meet-up in Nashville. It was almost overwhelming, given the sheer number and density of cars at the Lane Motor Museum, and all of the socializing. On Saturday, I must have talked almost nonstop from 7AM to 10PM. Unfortunately, my iPhone decided that 4:20 AM was a bit too early to get up and take the plane with me, so I had no camera on Friday at the Frist and on Saturday morning, when we assembled in front of the Lane to check out the several curbside classics that had been driven to Nashville by some of the attendees. But others did, and we’ll post them later.

And since I’m totally slammed today, I’m going just post a couple of Outtakes for now. Although the cars were splendid, the highlight was meeting other CC readers and socializing, including this lunch on Saturday at the cafe inside the nearby Harley Davidson dealer. I think I’ll await some group shots someone else took to identify everyone, as half of them are not visible here. But you get the idea.

Jason Shafer picked me up at the airport on Friday afternoon in his ’63 Galaxy 500, after an almost 500 mile drive from Missouri. Since I had no phone, I just hoped for the best in terms of his making the drive without incidence, but just minutes after I stepped out on the arrivals curb, I spotted the Galaxie heading towards me. That was a good omen, and everything else went equally smooth for the whole weekend.

Friday night we went to the Frist for the Italian car exhibit, which was a specially curated show of some of the finest cars of the classic Italian design period 1945-1975. I didn’t have my camera, but Vic Ceicys, seen here in front of Pininfarina’s seminal 1946 Cisitalia, sent me his, and we’ll get to them eventually.

If you want to know where the Buick designers got the idea of a triple-fin version for their ’59 cars, here it is, the very wild Alfa Romeo BAT 7, on of three aerodynamic concepts from 1954. Of course, the Alfa also had a pointed fastback, which made its dorsal fin look a bit less tacked on. And these cars were refined in a wind tunnel, and this one is the slipperiest of the three, with a superb Cd of 0.19. I’m no aerodynamicist, but I assume the curving fins help to keep the airflow attached to the tapering fastback, improving laminar flow.

The main floor of the Lane has some 150 cars, almost all foreign. It has the largest collection of Tatras, which was a particular draw to me. Here’s perhaps their finest one, a splendid silver 87, with its rear dorsal fin and air-cooled hemi V8. There were several Tatra streamliners, although none of the T77, which was the first one. One to add to the Lane wish list. And there were a number of earlier Tatras too.

We got into a long discussion about the ambiguous automotive empire of Carl Borgward,who had assembled several brands to create a mini GM in Germany by the mid-late 50s, including the very significant Borgward Isabella, which was the proto-BMW sports sedan of its time in the 50s, with a lively OHC four cylinder, independent suspension all-round, and exceptional performance and handling for the times. Borgward’s empire collapsed in 1961 (I had the year wrong), due to a liquidity crisis triggered by being too ambitious with the very advanced Lloyd Arabella and the luxurious six-cylinder P100.

The conspiracy theory is that the Quandt famlily, which had just recently bailed out BMW, had some pull with the banks to force the liquidation of Borgward, but the company’s cost structure with multiple brands and factories had been an on-going problem.

We’ll save the rest for another time. One of Jeff Lane’s particular interests is micro-cars, and the collection is anything but micro. This is just a microscopic slice, and we’ll get out the microscope and take a closer look soon.

The basement floor of the Lane is the holding tank for several hundred more cars, and more arrive all the time. In addition to a tour of the basement in the morning, Lane’s Rex Bennet gave us free rein to explore it again in the afternoon.

It’s a cornucopia of European and a growing collection of Japanese cars, many of them very obscure and very small too. Jeff loves the underdogs, which means there’s only one Mercedes in the whole collection, and it is a very rare and unusual (and relatively small) one.

One very important aspect to the Lane: every car gets registered with Tennessee plates, and over 80% are driven regularly, to keep them “exercised”. The staff gets to drive them, and we saw an Isetta getting a good workout on the street in front of the Lane.

Rex took us through the workshops, where the cars are repaired, restored (if needed) and maintained. The Corvair Corphibiam, created by a group of GM engineers in 1961, is getting some serious attention, as it has some leaks, and is not currently sea-worthy. But like all the Lane cars, it will be again soon, and will take its first plunge in a long time as soon as possible.

We were given access to Nissan USA’s collection, which is currently housed at the Lane. It includes a number of “Job 1” cars and trucks, the first to come off the lines at Nissan’s huge Smyrna, TN plant, as well as some historical cars and trucks and some show-circuit concepts like these three.

One of the highlights was to savor, ride and drive some of the classics that were driven to Nashville. On the way to lunch, I rode in the back of Robert Elliot’s fine white 1970 Charger 500, which he drove from the Atlanta area. He’s following Jason Shafer’s ’63 Galaxie. More pictures later…

Rob Tessier drove his exquisite ’67 Corvette convertible to Nashville, and we all oohed and aahhed over it in the morning. It’s absolutely perfect, and its silvery Elkhart Blue paint shows off Bill Mitchell’s masterly lines to perfection (the hood was not fully latched here). It was also equipped to perfection, with the desirable 350 hp version of the 327, four speed, and manual steering and (disc) brakes). A real driver’s car, although it was ordered with power windows. Don’t want the arms to get too much of a workout.

As we left the Lane to head for our dinner destination some 10-12 miles away, Rob offered me a ride there. Then he upped it to “would you like to drive it?” Would I ever. This is the car that I obsessed on as a kid; the Sting Ray came out in ’63 when I was ten, and it instantly vaulted to the top of my lust list. And I’ve never actually driven one of these. So he tossed me the keys and I had a peak experience.

Well, it had a minor low, given that the quite heavy clutch wants to be absolutely floored, unlike my Ford F100 clutch, whose bottom 35% of travel does nothing. That meant that I had trouble getting into first on a couple of starts, and made the syncro a bit unhappy on a shift into third (sorry Rob), but other than that, it was a dream, literally. The 327 is the sweetest running American V8 of the whole 60s era, period, and running it through the gears on an on-ramp, and trotting down the freeway on a balmy summer night with the top down was intoxicating.

Others (Vic here) took a turn sitting in the ‘vette, but I got lucky. Thanks again, Rob.

His father bought it in 1984 (IIRC), and it’s now his. Now that’s an inheritance to savor. Rob has replaced the rear steel transverse leaf spring with a fiberglass unit, which is 50lbs lighter and improves the ride. The Corvette rode quite well, and the manual steering lightens up quickly underway, but it’s a real vintage feel to steer this car through that big steering wheel. Quite the contrast from today’s synthetic electric assists.

We spent a good four hours yakking it up at the restaurant, and finally called it a day at about ten, to give our feet and tongues a break.

In addition to the Corvette, Ray Zilke drove his pristine low-mileage 1972 (IIRC) Ford F100 to the event, and Bill Walters drove his BMW Z3. And others came some distance in newer cars. But the real hero was Scott Bennett, who drove 1300 miles from Bangor, Maine! He said he’d been wanting a good excuse for a road trip for ages, and we gave him one. A long one, at that.

On Sunday morning, everyone hit the road, but not before Jason gave Jim Cavanaugh and I some wheel time in his ’63 Galaxie 500. As you all probably know by now, this has been in Jason’s family since new, and Jason has had it since he was fourteen. Meaning, it’s a family time capsule, and dripping with stories, which makes its original (and well-worn) interior something one might give pause to ever tearing out and restoring. There’s just too many stories embedded in that upholstery. Here’s Jim getting situated.

Jim is obviously enjoying the drive, as I did too. The big Galaxie has the 352 FE V8, which makes wonderful music through the dual exhausts with medium-loud mufflers. And it’s got a three-on-the tree, with overdrive, Armstrong steering, and manual brakes. It’s not the kind of car you want to take on a shopping trip with lots of parking, but this car just loves the open road. It’s got great thrust through the gears, and the overdrive makes it a real long-legged cruiser, with a very good ride to boot. Jason says he got 18-19 mpg on the drive to Nashville.

Well, after such an intense day and a half, I was quite happy to have a few quiet hours at the Nashville airport before my plane headed west at 5PM. I arrived in Eugene at a bit after 10PM, and there was still a psychedelic red glow over the Pacific, on the second-longest day of the year. But it was the best weekend of the year.

The Galaxie’s steering was tighter than my truck’s, and had surprisingly little play. These steering boxes can be adjusted, and should have no play in the box. But it’s the steering linkage that cause play, if the box is adjusted properly. But it was NOT light at parking speeds.

Ah, the early sixties Ford Armstrong steering – how could I forget! Dad was always having to get tie rod ends replaced on his ’62 Falcon, and I remember him hunched over the wheel, and the sound of his hands like hammer blows as he wrenched it from lock to lock when parking. Think that took about five turns, IIRC.

That’s about how much play was in the steering of my old ’70 C10 when I finally sold it in ’06. At about 170k miles the original Armstrong steering linkage was getting pretty loose. Still tracked nice and straight, though. The frame mount for the idler arm would wiggle in it’s rivets on the frame. In fact a lot of the riveted sections in the frame had worked loose over time. My steering box had been adjusted a time or 2 over the 30 years I owned the truck but was by this time pretty worn out, along with the all original tierod ends, balljoints and bushings.

As I recall Jim’s Galaxie is somewhere in the 70-80k mile range so I’m sure its steering and suspension is in much better condition then my tired and worked hard old truck.

It was a real workout trying to back and wiggle my 29ft 5th wheel trailer into a tight spot, especially combined with the heavy clutch pedal.

I’ll read all of this when I get home, but I wanted to say what a great time that I had, and to thank CC for doing this and all of the people who came out. It was an interesting group of folks and cars, and some unpublished COAL stories, too. I have not posted any of my pictures yet.

I heartily approve this message. It was a fabulous weekend, and tough to pick a highlight. You all know that I am not the biggest Europhile when it comes to old cars, but the Lane was simply fantastic, as was Rex who gave us the VIP treatment.

We have had a couple of these meet-ups before, and my favorite part has always getting to meet some of the other people who are CC fans. This time was no different. It was great meeting folks from several areas of the country and talk cars until we were all hoarse.

And I’m not going to lie, a bit of wheel time in the famous Shafer Galaxie has to make the JPC highlight reel. Perhaps you will read more about this later. . . .

Now now Mr Dutch, I’ll have you know that’s a golf cap. Notice the absence of any chewing tobacco advertisements. Just the sort of thing to protect my balding head from the sun of the south land and mid 90’s temperatures. I arrived in a Mitsubishi Gallant owing to its good fuel mileage and air conditioning. 900 mile avg. 29.6 mpg. AC on @ 75 mph. Not that there is anything wrong with a Pete 379.

I’ll give it a go. From the left side of the table, around back and back up to the right front:
Rich Ceglinski (Rich C) from Foley, MO
Ray Zilke from right there in Nashville
Christian Castillo (cjcz92) from Charlotte, NC
Donnie Allen from the Nashville area
Vic Ceicys (geelongvic) from Cleveland Heights, OH
Rob Tessier (Rob T) seated at the end of the table and from the Nashville area
Dave (whose last name I am embarrassed to say that I did not get and whose screen name is also Dave) from Cookville, TN
Bill Walters (Acd) from Canton, GA
Robert Elliott (Elliott) visible mostly from his dark cap and from the Atlanta area
J P Cavanaugh from Indianapolis
Jason Shafer from Jefferson City, MO
Paul, of course, took the picture.

I apologize for missing Saturday, but caught a bug and literally couldn’t get out. I sent Paul a text, but just realized from the article that his phone was down. It was great to meet all of you and thanks again for a wonderful time.

Jason Shafer

Posted June 20, 2016 at 4:10 PM

Catching a bug is never good; I hope its stay was brief.

Despite that, it was great you came Friday and it was an honor to meet you.

Nick Ragsdale

Posted June 20, 2016 at 4:25 PM

Its beginning to leave now, and I hate that it picked now to visit (the bug, NOT CCers). The honor was all mine ( in meeting you). At least we found a place NOT to mount a radio.

Looks like a truly great weekend. Funny thing about the ’67 Vette (which is one seriously beautiful car, btw): I was given an opportunity about 20 years ago to drive a friend’s ’67 Stingray Convertible with 427 and 4 speed. I was ridiculously excited, but soon learned much to my chagrin that it really was too much car for me. Coming of driving age in the early ’80’s and learning to drive on contemporary equipment for the time gave me absolutely no preparation for the pure raw power, thigh-jarring clutch, big steering wheel, notchy shifter, etc. of a “Real Car”. I managed to hold my own through a 3 or 4 mile mundane trip to the grocery store and back, but I felt like no match for that machine, as sad as I was to realize it. Don’t get me wrong, I could have worked my way up to being quite comfortable in it, but it was a daunting lesson for sure.

If anyone’s taking votes for another CC meetup, I’m tentatively looking into a Spring trip to Detroit next year and am open to all suggestions re sites not to miss. Never been there, would really love to experience the city. (My family’s afraid I might decide to move there, as I have some odd notions about Urban Homesteading, but I don’t think they’ve got much to worry about with Detroit. Although I haven’t been there yet.)

I have never been to Detroit, and it’s on my Must Do list, sooner than later. But it’s going to have to be a longer trip, as there’s so much to see. Spring sounds good, as long as it’s late enough so the weather is at least reasonably decent.

The snow stops by 1 May and the weather is usually warmer by mid May. Lots to see, including the Henry Ford museum/Greenfield Village, the GM Heritage collection, the Ford Rouge tour, Chrysler museum, Automotive Hall of Fame, Ford Piquette plant among others. Also, there’s the Ford Model T plant in Highland Park and the infamous Packard plant.

Would be willing to research the destinations once a tentative date is picked.

The Piquette Ave Model T museum is one not to miss. The Henry Ford museum obviously contains a few iconic cars but not as many as I would have thought – like the Lane they obviously have others stashed away somewhere.

A trip to the 74th floor (or whichever the restaurant is at) of the GM HQ for the view across Detroit and Windsor is great on a sunny day.

What a great place and a shame its so damn far away lucky some of you guys had a camera, yep love the Borgward there seem to be quite a lot of those alive in NZ and when I was at primary school my teacher crashed his VW and was driving a Borgward Arabella as a loaner, the only one Ive ever seen in the metal, looking forward to more stories and pics from the meet up.

+1. I also remember Borgwards on the street; they weren’t uncommon. Someone around the corner from me had an Arabella. I often wonder if some of these cars were commoner in Australia than in their native land.

I’m still disappointed that I couldn’t make it to Nashville this weekend, but seeing pictures and hearing stories is a good consolation prize. Looks like a fantastic weekend, and I look forward to seeing more!

A truly wonderful trip and I just got back a few hours ago. I did make a mild side trip to visit my grandparents “Iris” and “Albert”. When Grandpa saw the Galaxie, he said “You drove that car? The one with the bad water pump? I just told you dad I wouldn’t trust that son of a bitch to go into town!”. He was simply teasing as he was quite impressed I took it on such an adventure.

Meeting everyone (or seeing them again) was a true delight. It is quite likely I only looked at about a third of the cars on the main level due to talking with everyone. The weekend was for socializing as much (if not more) than for the cornucopia of amazing cars.

The old Galaxie achieved another 18.2 mpg between Cadiz, Kentucky, and Cape Girardeau, Missouri, all on two-lane roads. There was some stopping and starting for cars I found plus going through Paducah, KY.

I am so torn about the interior. From the time I left to the time I returned, the steering wheel crept up about two inches – or the seat settled that same amount. It was getting a little uncomfortable. However, she ran flawlessly and there were no water pump troubles.

Sorry I missed this one, but glad it all worked out for everyone, I trust the Lane was every bit as good for you as it was when I saw it last. Truly an outstanding museum and perfect for the likes of us. I’m looking forward to another meetup, hopefully in spring or fall next time, which work best for me (I’ll be selfish).

Paul and Jim: Thanks! It was absolutely my pleasure. Everyone seemed to have a great time, although there was this haggard look on their faces by the end of the day (it was extensive).

jpcavanaugh

Posted June 23, 2016 at 7:00 AM

Rex, I have to say two things. First, THANK YOU for the best museum experience I have ever had. The museum itself is great of course, but your personally led VIP tour was a real highlight. So much of one that I did not make it over 1/3 of the way through the main floor, but have only minimal regrets because I got so much in tradeoff.

Second, I have always found German cars mildly fascinating, but have never found a real German car “home”. And now I have: Starting last weekend, I am a Borgward man! I guess I am all about obscure high quality pioneering failures. 🙂

I’m not in the lunch photo because I was feeling a little rocky. Turns out I was dehydrated! I drank a quart and a half of water (Rob T graciously shared one bottle). I felt much better in the afternoon. And I have a wicked case of bronchitis, you can see me coughing in the background of Vic and the green car. Sunday I visited the Couchville Lake Arboretum and geeked out on trees, some that were familiar from Maine and many I’d never ID’d before. Today I visited Clingman’s Dome and part of the Blue Ridge Parkway. I must have gone up and down 50,000 feet in all that driving. My ears are still messed up! Tomorrow I’m revisiting Luray Caverns (last time was 1995). The museums and the company were great. I was surprised how many of the cars I was at least a little familiar with from all the reading I’ve done at CC. Thanks again to everyone, what a great time!

Thank you Paul, Jim & Jason and the rest of the readers who made Saturday at the Lane (and beyond) so much fun. Robert offered a ride to lunch in the Charger and I jumped at the chance when he said he had one more empty seat–what a cool car that is worthy of its own CC write up. I hitched a ride in the Shafer Galaxie on the way back and thoroughly enjoyed the burble of the V8. Rob’s Corvette is absolutely stunning and the people at car companies who have made the decision to limit paint and interior colors to greys and black need to spend some quality time with this Corvette and they might reconsider. Ray has about the most eye catching ’72 F100 you’ll run across and Vic may be the only person who I’ve ever met anywhere who knew the Alfa, Citroen and other obscure brand dealerships from our common home town along with the various VW, Mercedes & MG dealers who are all long gone. Scott, Rich, Dave, Christian and Donnie were all lots of fun to talk to as well (and there is quite a lot of talking when you get a dozen or so CC fanatics together).

The 1954 mid-century industrial bakery building is the perfect setting for this group of cars most of which I’d only seen in The Standard Catalog of Imported Cars. I heartily recommend touring the basement of the Lane with Paul who was never stumped when one of us asked “Hey Paul what’s this?” I’m already planning a trip later this summer back to the Lane with my son.

Thanks for a fun weekend guys. So many great stories, from first hand accounts, cars of our parents, relatives or siblings owed as diverse as automotive history itself. I can not overstate the genuine comrademe among CCers , as was so evident this weekend.

Great initial write-up Paul ! Thank you so much for the work that you did organizing this event. Although this was about my 4th time to the Lane Museum, this was by far the best trip there. It was great meeting you and everyone else and wherever the next meetup is I will try my best to make it. And you are welcome to grab the keys to the ’67 Vette anytime.

Wow wow wish I could have been a part of all the festivities, and wish I had a classic at the moment to drive there! I hope to come to the next trip! Oh, and at this point the classic is not an option given my finances, but my current top choices are a Ford Fairmont, a Plymouth Valiant or ANY Buick!

Sorry I missed the meet up, it appears that a good time was had by all, even those who might have felt less than 100%, To add on about old Ford steering, I remember my 1961 Ford’s steering as light, if slow. Mine at least did not have any slop or free play. I’m relying on memories of nearly 50 years ago but I remember driving a friend’s 1959 Chevy with the “Armstrong” steering; it was both slow and much harder to turn than my Ford, I suspect that even then the general wanted its customers to spring for the optional power steering.

You know, with all the talk about light vs. heavy steering, I wonder how much of that’s impacted today by folks running modern (and wider) radials on old cars. Seems like I remember the skinnier bias-ply tires we had back in the day did steer at low speed a little easier…

That’s a great question, although in my case I went with radials that were as close to the physical size of the original bias-ply tires as possible. So, in other words, these are like 215/70R14 or 205/70R14. It is indeed a handful at low speeds.

I’ve pondered about having more contact area at whatever time these tires age out (at 1000 or so miles per year, they’ll never go bald) to replace them with 15″ wheels and tires to better fill the wheel well. I’m still on the fence about that.

So sorry to have missed the festivities. I’d made a date with my wife and adult daughters to spend some time together. Last weekend was the date that worked the best for all of us. See you guys next time…